A loss of faith

Public faith in journalism has never been strong, with the average journalist being placed somewhere between secondhand car dealers and estate agents in the league table of trust.

In fact, public attitudes have always been more complex than the image of a shady doorstepper suggests.

In general, we are better disposed to broadcast journalism than to print, and to journalists on the quality papers than the mid-market or red tops.

Certain kinds of journalism within certain kinds of institutions have, contrary to conventional wisdom, inspired a great deal of trust.

That may be changing. Our YouGov survey repeated the question asked five years ago about 23 different occupations: "How much do you trust the following to tell the truth?".

The groups included seven kinds of journalist from BBC TV to red-top tabloid, and all except one have performed worse than every other group.

The worst performers are ITV and Channel 4: those saying they trust ITV journalists have declined 31% in five years (from 82% to 51%), while trust figures for C4 journalists are down 29% (from 80% to 51%). The BBC's trust figures are down 20%, from 81% to 61%.

Print journalism's performance is on a par with the BBC's. Trust in broadsheet journalists is down 22%, in local journalism down 20% and in mid-market journalism down 18%.

The only group to emerge unscathed were the red-top journalists, whose reputation was so low it could hardly sink further. Just 15% trust red-top reporters to tell the truth - slightly better than estate agents.

Other occupations such as police, teachers and NHS managers have also suffered, but the decline in trust is significantly more severe in journalism. Why this apparent collapse in public confidence?

There's the drip-drip effect of the "fakery" revelations over the past 18 months. The link from Ant and Dec to BBC newsrooms may be tenuous, but it's logical that damage to institutional credibility will impact especially on news output.

Newspapers, in particular, like to give broadcasters a good kicking, especially when celebrities are involved.

Does it matter? One argument holds that trust in the media is overrated, and that the more the public distrusts journalism the healthier it will be.

This is hardly a recipe for a well-informed democracy, and do we really want to tell the many bright students coming into journalism that their chosen occupation is too degraded to be worth the candle?

Good journalism makes a difference to the kind of society we live in, and to distrust it is eventually to destroy it.

·Steven Barnett is professor of communications at University of Westminster.

· A longer version of this article appears in the British Journalism Review, vol 19 no 2, available from SAGE Publications, 1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP, subscriptions hotline + 44 (0) 20 7324 8701, email subscriptions@sagepub.co.uk.

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